The first footage of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has been revealed at yesterday’s live internet broadcast, although few firm conclusions can be drawn. The subject is certainly sensitive to Warner Bros. with several videos around the web having been withdrawn by Monday morning due to breaches of the Terms & Conditions attached to the production.

It’s OK to tell what happened though and we can report that the footage ends thus, with Thorin declaring:

“We are the dwarves of Erebor. We have come to reclaim our homeland.”

No surprise there then. The trailer finishes on some sound effects that are unmistakably like a dragon, but of course there was no sign of Smaug himself anywhere. I do not think anyone actually expected that, so what did become clearer?

Alongside some moody shots of Gandalf and Radagast in a mausoleum of a cavern, we begin to learn more about Benedict Cumberbatch’s other character in the movie, at least by implication we do anyway, with Gandalf asking why the sword Glamdring, “got out into the world,” only to discover that there’s much more to it than meets the eye, all of which is meant to tie into the Necromancer storyline.

Peter Jackson appeared very aware of the potential problems with the middle film of any trilogy, responding to one fan’s question with:

“It is complicated to do a middle film, but the advantage is … we have multiple story lines … and we can start following multiple characters.”

Sounds enticing, as making a middle film into anything but a filler with untied endings and ragged beginnings can be a problem. Perhaps we will see a few complete stories within the overall arc; who knows? It is now almost legendary that enough footage has been shot to complete several movies.

More will undoubtedly be drip fed us over the coming months and as Jackson revealed this video release ought to be considered first in a series of blogs about the film. First mystery up, doubtless awaiting further examination later is Gandalf saying:

“These tombs were opened from the inside.”

That’s a little mystery that Gandalf is exploring in The Desolation of Smaug, according to Peter Jackson at the event. He also said that Mirkwood is the scariest land they’ll explore in the movie and described Thranduil’s kingdom using concept art. Cinemablend reported that:

“This looked like that same creepy forest but with some castle-like structure in there. The realm itself is underground, but there’s light filtering in– We want it to be grand, like a cathedral. But this is not Rivendell. This is not the friendly land of elves that we’re used to in these movies. Jed recalls his time spent as a dwarf, held prisoner in Thranduil’s kingdom.”

The approach used in this teaser follows the pattern of previous production video blogs, so you will have recognised the strategy by now no doubt. It looks like we can anticipate a steady ramping up of the pressure from now onwards until the finished trailer is put on general release.

I felt they didn't do a good job with sizing at all. In the LotR trilogy they did an outstanding job of this. In Hobbit I felt like I was watching tall dwarves that are just shrunk to look smaller than everyone else. Bugged me the entire movie. How can you do it so well in one movie yet so badly in the followup?

Hmm. I disagree. I thought the Hobbit was done very well. Especially the dwarves.

I felt they didn't do a good job with sizing at all. In the LotR trilogy they did an outstanding job of this. In Hobbit I felt like I was watching tall dwarves that are just shrunk to look smaller than everyone else. Bugged me the entire movie. How can you do it so well in one movie yet so badly in the followup?

Man, I have the complete opposite opinion. I thought the Hobbit and dwarves were done really well in The Hobbit. In the LoTR, you could tell the hobbits were either children or CGI when you saw them with the other characters. And Gimli the dwarf was a disaster. They used funky camera angles to make him look short and the few times you saw him from a distance, you could tell it was a different actor. The fact that they also made him the comic relief instead of the great warrior he is in the book was just icing on the cake.

I disagree here. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I thought I was a pretty big step down from any of the three LOTR films, and that's partly due to the complete destruction of my willing suspension of disbelief. I can get past these people falling great distances and not being completely broken, but can we get at least some scratches? It was a little overlong, and the pacing was a bit off. A lot of the toilet humor felt forced and out of place.

The casting was outstanding, though, and for the most part the effects were top notch (there's one shot of the Brown Wizard guy on the rabbit sled leading the orcs on a chase that had ridiculously bad FX).

Again, overall I enjoyed the movie, and I'll see the next ones. But it wasn't what I'd hoped, and it wasn't what I expected.

.... A story of Elves and Dwarves and Orcs and wizards and giant Eagles and magic rings. But those ****ers fell 500 feet and nobody died. So I hate it........ Fail...

cmon man, physics still exists in middle earth.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by big nasty kcnut

yeah i may be a retard but I'll be the one banging your girlfriend when you're out with your friends.

you people need to stop expecting greatness and just have fun with the goofy thing.

__________________
Please note that any racist, sexist, or otherwise outrageous opinions expressed in this post have been made for comedic or trolling purposes only and are not the actual opinions of loochy or any affiliated entities. Reader discretion is advised.

Quote:

Originally Posted by big nasty kcnut

yeah i may be a retard but I'll be the one banging your girlfriend when you're out with your friends.

Well technically that's not true. Countless other aspects of the movies break the laws of physics. All of which seem to be overlooked other than gravity. It's interesting to me that people question that aspect while ignoring numerous others that are clearly much less realistic. It's hypocritical criticism. And I'm not even sure why it bothers me.